Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Friday, 15th December 2023
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Friday, 15th December 2023
Rail passengers have been urged to plan ahead if they intend to travel over the festive period.
An article on the BBC website says Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express trains, said services would end early on Christmas Eve and there would be no trains on Christmas Day.
There are also widespread changes due to the seasonal timetable and planned engineering work by Network Rail.
Customers are advised to check their journeys before travelling.
Political and business leaders from across the North of England are calling on Avanti to scrap first class carriages on their trains until services improve.
An article on the Manchester Evening News website says Transport for the North (TfN) will write to the government proposing that all trains are ‘declassified’ immediately.
It comes after Avanti West Coast announced it would cut the number of services it operates in December due to staff shortages. The operator has reduced its services running between London and Manchester with only two trains an hour to the capital on Saturdays.
The Flying Scotsman locomotive will be spending Christmas at a County Durham rail museum as it ends it centenary year.
An article on the BBC website says the historic steam engine arrived at Locomotion in Shildon from York’s national Railway Museum on Thursday.
It will be at Shildon for three weeks.
Greater Anglia passengers have donated more than 1,600 meals’ worth of food to help people in crisis this winter through foodbank collections at stations.
Customers donated a total of 684 kilograms of food and much-needed items between 9 October and 9 December at Bishop’s Stortford, Harlow Mill, Harlow Town, Sawbridgeworth, and Stansted Mountfitchet stations.
An additional £457 was raised in cash donations.
Photo credit: Greater Anglia
